District 13 House candidates spar one last time before elections

EXETER — Fifteen of the 16 candidates for the eight District 13 House seats sparred for the last time before Tuesday's election on Wednesday night.

Joshua Clark

EXETER — Fifteen of the 16 candidates for the eight District 13 House seats sparred for the last time before Tuesday's election on Wednesday night.

The Exeter Area General Federation of Woman's Clubs and the Exeter News-Letter hosted the forum at Exeter Town Hall that was moderated by News-Letter Editor Emily Quirk.

Citizens from District 13 communities — Exeter, North Hampton and Stratham — posed written questions to the 15 candidates touching on topics ranging from education funding to creating a better environment for small businesses.

Adam Kelly could not attend Wednesday's forum due to a work commitment.

State budget

While incumbent candidates Trinka Russell and Matthew Quandt agreed on the fact the state has a balanced budget, they differed on the means to the end.

Russell acknowledged the presence of an increased budget due in part to the acceptance of stimulus funds "but what stimulus funds did was enable the state to fix roads, employ people, fix bridges, and provide money to education so we could put funds towards Medicaid costs, and food stamps which have gone up in the past year."

"The state has done a very good job doing the best we could have done to balance our budget and I think we will continue to do that," she said.

Quandt said by state law the Legislature is required to pass a balanced budget and by the letter of the law they have done so, but he cited the increased level of spending and borrowing as an area of concern.

"For the last six years it seems as though we've been doing more and more borrowing and even though that's legally the definition of a balanced budget, in truth its not balanced," he said. "We still have to pay that debt so we have to stop borrowing and pay what we can afford."

When asked what programs or areas of the state budget he would look to cut citing his assertion of a $600 million to $900 million deficit, Republican Patrick Abrami said there were opportunities presented during the last budget cycle to cut department budgets by millions of dollars.

"We, as a state, need to look at the big picture and bring fiscal sense back to the state," said the Stratham resident.

Small business

Both Republicans Tim Copeland and Frank Ferraro said the state needs to reduce the regulatory and tax burden on businesses.

"We are taxing businesses out of this state," said Copeland.

In speaking to health insurance for small businesses, Republican Joanne Ward said allowing more competition with health care plans was necessary to reduce costs to employers.

Ward also said there should be pools established for small businesses so that "collectively they have more bargaining power so they are not limited as to what their employees can be offered."

Continuing to build upon the number of businesses that have utilized reusable energy and continuing to strengthen partnerships with the university system of New Hampshire was one way, Democrat Brian Jervis said the state could attract businesses.

Education funding

Republican Ron Dupuis said he was vehemently opposed to the donor town system of funding public education.

In this a model the municipalities, which collect more money from statewide property tax than it costs to educate their students, are required to send the surplus funds to the state to be redistributed to other municipalities in need of financial assistance.

The state's two-year education funding transition formula, known as "the collar," ends July 1 and could result in the return of donor/receiver towns.

Dupuis said there are no sources of revenue that can fund education without instituting a state sales or income tax or a combination of both.

He supports a constitutional amendment to the formula which would alter the way the state funds education.

Patty Lovejoy, a member of the Exeter Region Cooperative School Board, said she is in favor of a constitutional amendment that would target aid to the neediest school districts.

Education is key to future prosperity, said Democrat Michael Perfit, and necessary for successful businesses in the state.

He said although he did not like the idea of increasing the real estate tax, business taxes, or the implementation of an income or sales tax it was necessary to "consider all of the various options that are least injurious to our economy."

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